CLEANTECH’s economic promise for India

As one of the fastest-growing emerging markets, India needs innovative and technology-driven solutions to boost its growth. The stakes are high, but so are the potential rewards: energy supply, environmental sustainability and rural development. Indian businesses and government are looking for innovative clean-technology applications, while entrepreneurs from the EU, US and Asia-Pacific are willing to tap into India’s tremendous potential in the cleantech sector, with a focus on solar power. Considering the current challenges of the economy, invaluable opportunities are there for both sides - just waiting to be seized.

So far, Cleantech investments have focused on bringing existing technologies to the Indian markets, rather than on developing entirely new solutions. Innovations mainly consist in modifying and aggregating multiple technologies and creating unique business models adapted to the Indian context. Rural/decentralized power is gaining momentum in cleantech investment industries. With the drop of photovoltaic prices and the vast rural and suburban markets that are underserved by grid power, global entrepreneurs are showing great interest in distributed power generation.

Aside from the opportunities found in a captive market of nearly 100,000 villages across the country, investors would also benefit from an organized move. Early this year, the Indian government set up the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to oversee the National Solar Mission (NSM), tasked with delivering 20GW of installed solar capacity by 2020 at an estimated cost of USD 20 billion. A research and development program was launched in 2010 under the NSM umbrella, to clear the way for the creation of affordable solar-energy systems through international cooperation.

Foreign entrepreneurs, especially from the UK and US, are exploring India’s rural areas and testing the markets for solar applications. They can rely on local partners offering entirely new ways of selling solar-power products. Innovative marketing, employing local villagers, and innovative pricing, such as pay-as-you-use facilities, are being tested. Startups tapping off-grid energy solutions are burgeoning, while innovative technologies applicable to the waste-to-energy and water sectors are emerging, as are other areas of interest for international partnerships. The Cleantech journey has just begun, but holds great promise for India.